Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Soccer Places Three on NSCAA Scholar All-East Team
12/23/2010 7:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Dec. 23, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. – For the first time in program history, the Bucknell women's soccer team placed three student-athletes on the NSCAA Scholar All-East Team. Senior Christa Matlack, the 2010 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, was a First Team selection, while senior Kelsey Johnson was a second team pick and senior Amanda Citron a third team choice.
Bucknell, which captured the NSCAA Team Academic Award for the 15th year in a row, tied for the second-most selections on the Scholar All-East Team, trailing only St. John's four.
This was yet another significant honor for Matlack this fall. In addition to her Player of the Year award, she was also named First Team All-Patriot League and First Team ESPN Academic All-District, and she was named to the inaugural Patriot League All-Academic Team. A year ago, Matlack became the first Bucknell women's soccer student-athlete to earn NSCAA Scholar All-America honors, and she will be up for that award again this year.
A biology major with a 3.57 cumulative grade-point average, Matlack is doing research with a faculty member on the effects of in ovo vitamin E and corticosterone injections on lipid peroxidation, telomere length, post-hatch growth and behavior of newly hatched chickens. She was selected as a Student Ambassador by the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and also volunteers with the Lewisburg Head Start program.
On the field, Matlack was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row. She led the team in goals (7) and points (17) and was tied for second in assists (3). Among the Patriot League leaders, Matlack ranked second in goals and third in points. Matlack scored the lone goal in Bucknell's 1-0 win over Colgate that helped the Bison gain a share of the Patriot League regular-season title, and she also had goals in league play against Army and Lafayette. Army, which tied the Bison atop the league standings, allowed only one goal all season in conference play, and that was scored by Matlack.
Matlack will graduate as one of the top scorers in Bucknell women's soccer history. She ranks fifth in goals (32), fifth in points (78) and seventh in assists (14).
This fall Citron was announced as a Second Team ESPN Academic All-District selection, and she also made the Patriot League All-Academic Team. A three-year member of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, Citron is a computer science and economics double major with a cumulative GPA of 3.64. She spent the spring 2010 semester studying at Universidad de Alicante in Spain, and she was selected for Bucknell's prestigious and rigorous Institute of Leadership in Management and Technology. This past summer she interned at General Electric in Atlanta, Ga., and she has already been hired by the company after she graduates from Bucknell.
Citron serves as the head Teaching Assistant in the Bucknell computer science department and is a member of the Bucknell Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. On the field, she just completed her second year as a team co-captain and was a four-year starting defender. A 2009 All-Patriot League selection, Citron did not miss a game in her first three seasons. She missed seven contests due to a leg injury this season, but after her return to the lineup the Bison won six of their next eight games and finished tied for first in the regular-season standings.
Johnson was also a four-year starter on defense, appearing in 77 of a possible 79 games during that time. She was part of a defense that shattered the school record for shutouts in a season (8) in 2008, and last year she was named the team's defensive MVP. On Oct. 2, Johnson scored a goal in Bucknell's 3-0 league win over American. It was her third career tally, with the other two coming in the same game against Princeton in 2007.
Off the field, Johnson boasts a 3.52 GPA in civil engineering. She serves as secretary of the Bucknell chapter of the Chi Epsilon civil engineering honor society, and she is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. Last summer she interned at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services.
Bucknell's 3.61 combined team GPA last semester was one of the 10 best in all of Division I women's soccer. In 2010 the Bison went 5-2 against Patriot League competition (7-13 overall) and qualified for the Patriot League Tournament for the sixth straight year.
